Total War: Warhammer 2’s The Hammers & Herdstones Update is almost upon us and developer Creative Assembly has now shared its lengthy patch notes, delving deeper into the sequel’s last major set of reworks.
Accompanying Warhammer 2’s excellent final DLC, The Silence & The Fury, The Hammers & Herdstones Update brings about sweeping changes for the Beastmen and Dwarf races, alongside a set of quality of life tweaks, and much more.
Landing tomorrow, July 14, The Hammers & Herdstones Update gives the Beastmen access to a new resource, Dread, gained by completing missions, razing settlements, and winning battles. Naturally, the more casualties and destruction you leave in your wake, the greater rewards you can earn.
Using Dread, Beastmen players can invoke the favor of the Dark Gods, obtaining Legendary Lords, heroes, new magic items, alongside various faction upgrades. Upkeep costs are also no longer a thing for these beastly boys, and the unit caps that mainly limit your recruitment capabilities can also be expanded using Dread.
Winning a settlement battle and erecting a Herdstone erases civilized life from the region and its neighbours, turning them into Bloodgrounds. Raiding, winning battles, and razing settlements inside Bloodgrounds increase their Devastation, paving the way to technologies, Herdstone buildings, and skills, ultimately leading to a Ritual of Ruin.
This new feature added in Warhammer 2’s The Hammers & Herdstones Update, turns the Bloodground into a Devastated Bloodground and all earned Devastation into Marks of Ruination, which are “a key progression resource.” Your Herdstone cap also grows by one, so you can spread your dark influence and erase civilized life from more regions. Devastated Bloodgrounds are also a great way of stopping other factions from expanding into certain territories.
As an added bonus, the Beastmen will also be able to recruit Feral Manticores, while Malagor’s wings finally grant him the ability to fly by default.
As far as the Dwarfs go, their Grudge bar now has more tiers and grants more powerful effects. Clearing Grudges should also be “more attainable,” while your Legendary Lord’s Grudge level grants increasing bonuses to stats, but also influences the number of Wandering Slayers that he can recruit to his armies.
Wandering Slayers can be recruited from the Regiments of Renown tab, their number increasing with the faction’s Grudge level. Each Legendary Lord now also starts with a Legendary Grudge.
Runecrafting and Rune Magic have also seen significant changes and you can read about them, and all the balance tweaks coming in Total War: Warhammer 2’s The Hammers & Herdstones Update in the article covering the full patch notes over on the game’s website.
While this will likely be the last major update for Warhammer 2, Total War: Warhammer 3 is set to launch later this year and should give us plenty to do as we fend off the Chaos Gods or do what’s very obviously the right thing and join them.
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